Febkuaby 28, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



201 



ways by which our service to humanity might 

 be greatly enhanced. If improvements might 

 be introduced each individual might find more 

 pleasure than is now possible, in his own work 

 and in that of the group, and it seems just now 

 to be an opportune time to take some thought 

 as to jwssible ways by which our social func- 

 tion as scientists may become more satisfac- 

 tory, both to ourselves and to those outside of 

 our group. A kind of idealism has succeeded 

 in winning the war, and he who runs may read 

 that this was a war of science, and that it was 

 through science that it was finally won. Con- 

 sequently, I may not be too bold if I here pass 

 in review some of the suggestions for an im- 

 proved science that have come to me in one 

 way or another. 



In the first place, ever since my student 

 days it has seemed very strange to me that the 

 devotees of science lay so little stress on the 

 broader and more general aspects of their 

 work and upon the aims that are held in view. 

 Our introductory books plunge the beginner 

 into a maze of concrete detail, without at- 

 tending to the orientation that every begiimer 

 needs. Our teaching of beginners follows our 

 texts, or else our texts follow our teaching. 

 We imply that this general orientation, this 

 appreciation of the relations between our par- 

 ticular small chapter of science and the great 

 body of himian knowledge, will care for itself, 

 without conscious attention. We see that our 

 students learn how to weigh a seed or how to 

 stain a chromosome, and we strive to give 

 them a digest of all that is so far known of 

 seeds or chromosomes, but it is only seldom 

 that the very need for such knowledge re- 

 ceives adequate attention. I am not sure 

 whether botanical science is to be criticized 

 more in this respect than other branches, but 

 I am sure that the criticism is justly to be 

 considered by botanists of all sorts. 



Obviously the matter has lain largely in a 

 lack of esprit du corps among botanists; we 

 have largely failed to be conscious of our 

 responsibility as a group. We have not taken 

 the trouble to find out what we can agree on, 

 and an outsider feels that we can not agree 



on anything at aU. As the late Professor 

 Bessey remarked of botanical research, the 

 work of botanical science is carried on by a 

 sort of guerilla warfare, each botanist for 

 himself. To speed up our work in all lines 

 we need more team-play, as it were. We need 

 to have somewhat clearly in mind what, in- 

 deed, our activities are all about. If we 

 might attend to these matters of orientation 

 we ought to be able, then, to emphasize cer- 

 tain sorts of work that are to be regarded as 

 the more important, for the present. 



The answer to the question as to how 

 guerilla warfare, without esprit du corps and 

 without conscious aims, is to be metamor- 

 phosed into a planned and productive cam- 

 paign, lies, I am almost certain, in the con- 

 notation of the word cooperation. As we mob- 

 ilized ourselves and laid aside our individual 

 differences of opinion or faith, in order to help 

 in the winning of the war, even so ( if we 

 thought it important enough) we might mob- 

 ilize ourselves for the rational acceleration of 

 the work of botanical and other sciences. One 

 of our greatest responsibilities right now is to 

 orient ourselves as a group and to plan our 

 campaign of work for the immediate future. 



The group of botanists is an international 

 group and our mobilization should aim to be 

 international finally, but it were well if the 

 botanists of this country might put their own 

 house in order as a first move toward the set- 

 ting up of conscious aims and planned cam- 

 paigns by the world group. In the meantime, 

 botanical scientists of other countries may be 

 doing likewise, and the International Associa- 

 tion, or some other organization, might become 

 the means of bringing the national groups into 

 a single whole. 



Turning to matters a little more concrete, 

 I suggest that there are two quite different 

 kinds of aims or objects, toward which we 

 may strive. The first of these has to do with 

 our resiKjnsibility to preserve botanical knowl- 

 edge, to make it available for all sorts of ap- 

 plication, and to pass it on to the next and 

 later generations. The second kind of aim 

 deals with our responsibility, to add to botan- 



